Lots of delicious food, interesting families, sprinkling of Portuguese words, and romance make for a great book. Lari and Pedro are likeable and readers will be able to relate to one or both of them. While some readers might say that stories like this have been done before they have never been set in Brazil so I found it refreshing and fun. I can't wait to see what Rebecca Carvalho writes next. I'd recommend this to readers who enjoyed Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee or readers who enjoy rom-com/dramas.

4/5 stars.

Pros:
- Enemies to lovers story with a solid reason behind the enmity.
- Not set in the US! Always great to have books representing different places and cultures.
- Great cast of supporting characters.

Cons
- At times the enmity felt over the top and cartoonish.

As a food lover, but not much of a rom-com reader, I enjoyed this sweet book set in Brazil. Lari and Pedro are high school students whose rival family bakeries are across the street from each other. The rivalry is generational. Lari’s mom expects her to go to college and leave the bakery behind. Pedro’s family expects him to take over the bakery without changing a thing. Lari has never been encouraged to bake. Pedro is forbidden from going to culinary school because it would mean change in the bakery. As Lara and Pedro discover themselves and each other over a bumpy road, I looked forward to seeing what would happen next.

There is a current push in my high school to provide books with less trauma and more joy. This story fits the bill perfectly, and it’s set in Brazil! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review. I’m looking forward to recommending this.

Bakers, cooks and romantics gather round. Here is a tale for you: a sweet, fun Romeo and Juliet story for foodies.

Lari and Pedro have bought into their multi-generational family feud until they are forced to work together in a school cooking club. More importantly, the predatory company that has been slowly putting everyone in their neighbourhood out of business has turned their attention to their families' bakeries. If Lari and Pedro don't put aside their differences and team up, they will both lose big time. Their relationship slowly moves from suspicious and resentful, to one of respect, then fondness, and finally...

The romantic tension between Pedro and Lari is fun and relatively subtle. When they finally profess their feelings, it's sweet and not at all overdone, unlike oh so many romances. Their families' reactions are also believable, if a little bewildering (Pedro's grandfather... made some weird life choices).

The characters are a more emotional than I thought reasonable. Lari cries a lot and there are definitely other tearful moments amongst her friends that I didn't understand the value of including. Apart from that and the grand-dad's weird life choices, this really was a fun read!

Rebecca Carvalho's descriptions of food are incredible! I'm not a foodie in any way and I want this food. All of it. Now. I want grilled cheese with the cheese stretching from here to forever and corn cake and all the sweets Lari loves and Pedro bakes. I don't know what most of this is but I want it because Carvalho makes it sound delicious.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Salt and Sugar caught my attention due to it being set in Brazil, and I love that we’re seeing more books set outside the US and the West/global north. While Rebecca Carvalho now lives in the States, her familiarity with Brazil from being born and raised there comes through in the pages of this book, especially in how she subtly conveys all the cultural nuances. As the story centers two families who run rival bakeries, I love the way food is incorporated in particular.

As the blurb indicates, family is important to both Lari and Pedro, and while the rivalry serves as an obstacle to them seeing the similarities between them initially, I appreciated the way they came to a realization about their similarities beneath the grievances. Both of them harbor secret desires which go against their respective families’ wishes, and I love how they are able to support each other and understand each other when others do not.

I also love how Lari in particular is developed in terms of exploring her relationship with her grandmother. Her grandmother’s death takes place early on, and you see how the grief impacts Lari, both personally and in terms of how it shakes up the dynamics within the family.

This is a solid YA contemporary with a strong focus on both family and romance. If that appeals to you, I recommend checking this one out!

For the ultimate cliché, this book is like a sugary, savory bolo de rolo — one you can’t stop eating until every last piece is gone.

I adored Rebecca Carvalho’s SALT AND SUGAR. It’s an effortless homage to heritage, a nod to tradition and reinvention and an ode to family and first love. Plus, it’s fun — featuring feuding bakeries, grandchildren with something to prove and countless mouthwatering descriptions of desserts and delicacies.

Set in northeastern Brazil, this is Carvalho’s love letter to where she grew up, and it couldn’t be more beautifully told.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.*

The Quick Cut: the grandchildren of two rival Brazilian bakeries begrudgingly work together to save their families respective businesses from a takeover attempt. Drama ensues as emotions get involved.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Inkyard Press for providing the ARC for an honest review.

Working with family at a minimum can get difficult. Whether its different perspectives, opposing work styles, or frustrating problems, things can get heated very quickly. For how complex it can be though, it can also create strong bonds to make success happen. When a superstore chain moves into town, Lari and Pedro do the unthinkable to save their families bakeries: work together.

Lari has lived her entire life watching her family bake and run the family savory bakery, Salt. She also has watched her family continue to compete and argue with the bakery across the street, Sugar. They used to work together, but years ago ended up enemies after a partnership went south. Now generations continue the rivalry and pass it down to their kids. However, superstore Deals Deals threatens that continuing rivalry by coming into town and pitting them against each other, in the hopes of taking both businesses down. Can the rivals work together to take down a common enemy? Or end up taking their family businesses down quicker instead?

This is a cute contemporary story that manages to weave together an adorable rom-com with plenty of cultural exposure on what Brazilian food and families can be life. So much of what happens in the story tells you how important holidays are and what communities do together to stay together.

The story is told through Lari's perspective, but Pedro features heavily as they go from enemies to partners to more. At first, it seems like there's a valid reason for the family rivalry. However, then the different sides start to see one another's perspective and slowly changes their ways. Fighting alone will only cause more pain. Working together will save them from certain doom.

While I enjoyed the overall story, it definitely has it's rough spots. At 368 pages long, it's definitely a longer contemporary story. While I enjoyed the story's journey, it also read long too and I'm more of a fast paced reading girl. The plot has a lot of elements too it, which mostly work together. However, it's so much working together that as a reader I started to nitpick the parts that felt unnecessary. If you enjoy a highly complex story, it won't bother you. I'm just not exactly the reader they aim for with these tales.

My rating: 4 out of 5

This book gave us family rivalry, two main characters, coming together to save their family bakeries, and a ton of family drama. I adored Lari and Pablo, they are serious go getters, and are so innovative, and fun, there is the introduction of first love in this book, and the lessons of forgiveness. The messages in this book were very strong and heartfelt.

Thanks NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I love stories of families and rivalries and this one delivered. Cute, overall enjoyable and reminded me of a Nicole Yoon story. I enjoy sweet stories. Love, love, love stories with baking themes too - I don't know why, but those are warm and fuzzy stories to me.

Seeing that salt and sugar remind me of cooking and baking, I will say that this book is a sweet treat. This is a nice story with some elements that will remind the reader of Romeo and Juliet with the feuding families. There is a lot to learn about Brazilian food and you may want to research some recipes along the way. This story results in the teaming up of two feuding families to make sure their family businesses succeed against the new market coming to town. New bonds are formed. There are a few predictable moments but overall it is a really nice story.

Salt & Sugar by Rebecca Carvalho is a YA novel about two high school students from feuding bakeries that fall for each other.

A sweet and enjoyable enemies to lovers novel that will have you craving all kinds of baked treats

This book had a good amount of romance and family struggle in it. I was able to feel with the heroine character and got teary eyed at a few points. I rated a 4 because I enjoyed the story but it took a while for the turn around and then the book ended too quickly for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Inkyard Press and Rebecca Carvalho for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

A nicely, although not over-reliantly, tropey YA contemporary. The passion for cooking and community was on full display here, and Lari's conflicted feelings about her future are extremely relatable. However, I found a lot of the feuding to be over the top (at some point it felt like people would just start avoiding both families if they were constantly screaming at each other in the street over tiny things and a generations-old slight), the story sometimes felt like it was dragging, and the secondary characters especially didn't feel particularly well-rounded. I also thought the resolution, while perhaps more realistic than a complete routing of the big chain store, was a little underwhelming. A nice choice for teens who enjoy books about food and/or feuds, but not necessarily a standout.

I read a physical galley of this and totally loved it. My husband is Brazilian, so I knew several of the references and my mouth was WATERING for the pastries and breads described. It made me miss Brazil. Such a fun enemies/friends to lovers romance. Rivals, so much pining... this is not one to miss.

I wanted to love this one but I feel like I have read too many books lately that have been similar to this one and it just didn’t pan out for me.

The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Lari. Her grandmother has just died and now her mother must decide what to do with the bakery. There is a lot of history with the other bakery on their block and it’s never pretty when they are together. I definitely would have liked to see Pedro get a point-of-view and maybe it would have helped with understanding both sides a bit more.

Lari isn’t a bad character and she does have a heart of gold. She wants to see her grandmother’s bakery strive and if that means taking baking classes then so be it! Lari also wants to see the feud squashed and I give her props for following through and trying to be friends with Pedro. It takes a lot of guts to disobey the family.

The plot is filled with a lot of cooking and drama. I am always down for a book talking about food even if it makes me hungry. I feel like I can smell it right off the page. The feud drama was okay but felt a bit childish. Lari had the most sense and everyone else kind of acted like middle schoolers. It didn’t work for me and I just had a hard time getting into that part of the plot.

Overall, this was an okay read. It could be just my mood with this one since I have read books similar to this one recently. Who knows! If you like books about food and feuds then definitely give this one a try.

I love a book that handles tough subjects well and this book covers grief, familial expectations, and discovering your passion as a young teen. These plot devices can rather make or break a book and in case they work really well. Lari's subplot about grief was really emotional. She really wanted to become a baker, but both of the families against their families' wishes was also thoughtfully explored in this book. I loved that Pedro and Lari bonded over the shared burden of their family.

This gave serious Romeo & Juliet vibes.

I enjoyed my time with these two long-time feuding families. Pedro and Lari found themselves caught up in the fighting, both making assumptions about the other's behavior and motivations for his or her actions. Both Pedro and Lari wanted different things for themselves than their families did and I enjoyed their struggles as they fought for what they wanted. I also enjoyed the pacing of how both Pedro and Lari started to doubt what they've been raised to believe all their lives.

The themes of grief and overcoming huge personal losses were ones that paralleled the feuding bakery families. Lari's struggle with her grief was worsened by her lack of support at school as her classmates sided with more popular Pedro.

I also enjoyed the theme of big business taking over mom and pop shops. This issue is has often played out close to home and beloved small businesses have folded due to big box stores moving into the neighborhood and underselling the independent stores.

The setting was amazing and I enjoyed the cultural references and foods. I could almost smell and taste the delicious creations Salt and Sugar baked.

My favorite part of this novel was the theme of family. The broken bonds, the loyalty, the healing, the protective parents, and the willingness to forgive and work together were heartwarming.

A Romeo and Juliette retelling set in the Brazilian culture, Salt and Sugar is a sweet,young adult romance novel. The grandchildren of the Molina and Ramires families go to school together and have a huge rivalry thanks to their family bakeries being right across the street from each other. The descriptions of the baked goods is mouthwatering and a great way to learn about the Brazilian culture. When the stakes are high, Lari and Pedro, now dating, put their rivalry aside to do what is best for their families. This was a cute read!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ugh!! I cannot get over how cute this debut ya rom-com is!! Some debut books have trouble with over description but not Salt and Sugar!! It is adorable!!! Sweet yet Salty, readers will be itching toward their favourite treat while reading this adorable read. I love how readers are able to get not only a sense of character from the first few pages but also sense of history

A great debut from Rebecca Carvalho!

Salt and Sugar gives readers a Romeo and Juliet story full of mouth-watering food, feuding, and falling in love. Adding in the neighborhood and its importance to the characters gives it an inspiring twist that I think many people can relate to.

Lari is a great protagonist, and I felt connected to her story and her growth. I think many readers can relate to wanting to make their family proud, pushing aside dreams in favor of what their family finds important. She's just a relatable character, and not just because I also find myself a bit clumsy!

I loved seeing Lari and Pedro's relationship ebb and flow through the story, and I thought their romance was done really well. Not that insta-love the real Romeo and Juliet had, but one with a focus on the family feud and where different generations stand in it. Though they made me angry at times because I just wanted them to TALK and be together, I think the author does a great job of bringing them together realistically and at the right pace.

And the food. Oh the food. Do not read on an empty stomach. I want to try everything mentioned in this book! Having the food play such a prominent role in the story really made the culture shine! Showing readers the importance of community and local-owned businesses is also something I really appreciated and felt drawn to in the story.

Overall, this is such a fun enemies-to-lovers story to tide readers appetites over until Carvalho gives us more!